Monday, May 28, 2018

If You Don't Think Trump is a Crony Capitalist...

...read this.

He is all about managed trade, that helps out his friends and voting blocs, not free trade.

Washington is now pressing Beijing to enter into multiyear contracts to buy US agricultural and energy imports as part of a broader trade deal aimed at reducing the $337bn bilateral trade deficit with China, reports the Financial Times.

But the move could mean taking Chinese business away from key US allies such the EU, Australia, Brazil and Argentina, whose exports could be hit by President Donald Trump’s gambit, notes FT. And it would also distort, for no justifiable economic reason, the structure of global production, which will do nothing from an economic perspective other than shrink global living standards, including that of the United States.

That said, as with everything else with the Trump administration, it remains a goat rodeo.

FT quotes one person close to the discussions inside the White House as saying “It’s a very lively debate and you can just see almost in real time the president vacillating all over the place as briefers go in and out and as he reads the media and sees the blowback on ZTE.”

3 comments:

Why would anyone think he wasn't a crony capitalist? He's been a real estate developer for his entire career. You're either a crony capitalist in that business or you're not in that business. His entire world view is government people deciding what goes forward and what doesn't. Paying off government people for everything from approvals of plans to passing inspections. Then at Trump's scale in that business in come the banks, federal reserve policies, and even more government regulation. Of course he's a crony capitalist. Only a moron, a dupe, someone extremely naive, etc would think otherwise.